To better facilitate connections between student interests and McCain’s collections, we are providing our student workers, via the library’s blog and social media accounts, with a platform to explore and share areas they would like to highlight. The following entry is the first installment of the year in a series by Rachel, a second year student at Agnes Scott.

TW: Includes content pertaining to sexual assault

This semester, I will continue to view third wave feminism through my blog series, just in a different way. I hope to take an in-depth, academic view at the problems surrounding the recent outflow of sexual abuse allegations against some very influential men. The hope is that through research and interviews with current Agnes Scott faculty, I can shed light onto the issues that we are seeing in our world today. Using human rights, women’s studies and historical perspectives I will engage with professors in a conversation on what the “Me Too” movement means from their academic lenses.

From the #metoo movement to “I believe survivors,” the United States has been seeing an outflow of survivors coming forward with their sexual assault stories. What does society’s reaction tell us about the world we live in today? How does this affect our past, present, and future? What about many who are not assaulted by men of importance? Women of color, children, sex workers, transgender people, and even men.

In order to get an academic perspective I will conduct and transcribe interviews with a few of our lovely faculty members. The hope is to open a conversation between faculty and students in order to get information about the current goings on in the world and not only their opinion but their insight as experts in their fields. I hope to talk with Dr. Tajali on the human rights aspects of this movement as well as the rights of those who don’t get a moment in the spotlight. With the Women’s Studies department, the plan is to touch on the immense amounts of privilege we are seeing in the media as well as just what this movement of empowerment means for women. Finally, I will take a historical perspective I also intend to tie the conversation back to helpful resources that the library has. I hope that these blog posts will be informational to those who read them and entertaining as well!

For the first installment of my blog this semester, I interviewed Agnes Scott’s Dr. Tajali on what human rights implications may be present in the Me Too movement. To start, I asked Dr. Tajali what she thinks the the immense amounts of media attention means for everyday people who are not getting the same attention as the elites and celebrities we are seeing in the news. She responded by saying that the situation is complicated.

“The reason I’m saying it’s more complicated is yes we provide them the platform but then there are so many different loopholes that you know like for instance what’s happening right now, more than likely we will have Kavanaugh confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. But nonetheless some would say ‘See how disheartening this is that we provide this platform to a victim who comes forward years later to speak about it still it doesn’t do anything.’”

Dr. Tajali continued on to say that she, as a scholar and someone who studies activism and social movements, sees this as a good step forward because people cannot expect change to happen overnight. The platform that is being provided for women is very helpful because it is spreading awareness even though there is not any major change that has happened yet. But still, the awareness allows all women not just elites the chance to come forward. Dr. Tajali is confident that within a few generations we will see some more change surrounding this issue. We also discussed the issue of privilege when it came to these people coming out with their stories. Privilege is another part of what makes this movement so complicated. When privilege is class, sexual orientation, and racially based it plays a big role in the gradual steps of the change we are seeing. The fact that this all started with celebrities who according to Dr. Tajali are the “Creme-de-la-creme who started to voice and of course if you’re in such a major position and you’re still complaining about being a victim of sexual assault, then what about others?”

Finally, for anyone who wants to do more research on this Dr. Tajali recommends Intersectionality by Kimberle Crenshaw and anything the library may have to offer on social movements, specifically women’s rights movements.

In observance of Veterans Day, student assistant Annel Chavez has created an exhibit focusing on veterans of the Korean and Persian Gulf Wars. Stop by the elevator case on the main floor of the library to take at look at this informative display.

These are a few questions that can be answered by visiting the “Nigeria Culture Through Media” display on the first floor of McCain Library!

By curating a display out of literature that is by and about revered Nigerian figures, summaries, and garments, student assistant Folasade pays homage to her culture while inviting others to learn more about it.

McCain library will celebrate National Writers Month 2018 by hosting a month long event for students to come together to work on their novels or other writing projects. This event consists of weekly meetings, Wednesdays from 6-7pm, November 7, 14, and 28. In the meetings, future authors will come together for writing exercises, hear from Scotties who have published their own books, and get tons of helpful advice. The final event on November 28 will feature a known published author. Each meeting gives you a raffle ticket that puts you in the running for our prize! So, the more meetings you attend, the higher the chance to win. No matter where you are in your writing journey, stop by and finally get cracking on that book you’ve been meaning to write.

Visit the library at 4pm today (Friday, November 2) to enjoy some delicious baked goods celebrating Día de Muertos and make sure to stop by Annel Chavez’s (Class of ’21) incredible tribute to her grandfather and Día de Muertos on the first floor of the library.

This Ofrenda I made is for my abuelito, Feidel Chávez, who passed away my senior year of high school. This is my 4th year doing an ofrenda for my abuelito. It’s important to me because it’s a way to connect to my abuelito and my heritage. In Mexico, it’s something my whole family celebrates, and I never really got the chance to celebrate this special day with them. Imagine my grandpa coming back on November 2nd, Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and he finds one of his ofrendas in Agnes Scott! He would be shocked to find himself at a library of all places in a different state. It’s a very beautiful day in my culture filled with parties, laughter, and prayers. Even though it’s sad that my abuelito passed way, he’s here on that day celebrating and laughing with the family without a care in the world.

The Ofrenda (altar) is placed on a table and covered by a tablecloth. The ofrenda I made has 3 levels; the saying goes that the higher the ofrenda is the closer to God the dead are. I did this by stacking boxes on top of one another on the table (traditionally, if you were in Mexico, this would be done on the tombstone). It’s typically decorated with papel picado (cut tissue paper), crucifix, rosary, cempasuchitl (a traditional flower for the dead), candles, salt, water, drinks, copal (a type of incense), comida tipica (such as mole, tamales,arroz, pozole, menudo, fruits), Pan de Muerto (Bread of the dead), favorite clothing, small toys, cigarettes, liquor, pictures of the loved ones who passed away, Calavera de Azucar (sugar skulls), La Calavera Catrina (Dapper Skeleton), etc. Most of the items above also depend on if the deceased loved ones liked them while they were still in the land of the living. For example, my deceased abuelito (grandpa) liked to eat Fray Vasco de Quiroga (Mexican fruit roll-ups), so I put a small basket of them on his altar.

McCain Library apologizes that programmers gave us very little notice on this point before we go live with the OpenAthens new way of authenticating users of library e-resources outside of the campus network on tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, November 1. (You will no longer need the GALILEO password; instead, if you’re off the campus network, you will be asked for your network login – what you use to access Scottie email.)

IF you personally use Folders in EBSCO databases, please read on. If not, this step below does not impact you.

My EBSCOhost Personal Folder Account:

After go-live tomorrow (Nov. 1 afternoon) users will be forced to sign into an SSO/OpenAthens My EBSCOhost Personal Account. This account will automatically be created by SSO/OpenAthens and will be different than the My EBSCOhost Personal Account they created previously to store articles, check out eBooks, or save searches.

Unfortunately, after go-live users will not be able to log into their old account. Between now and go-live they will need to log into their My EBSCOhost Personal Account and export items to an CVS file that can then be used for finding items again and re-saving to their new account. I have attached a guide that walks users how to export their items.

Again, we apologize for the lack of time to let users know about this unexpected change.

Visit McCain Library’s Floor 2 Archives Lobby for the Exhibit,
“The Four Garretson Scotties: Insights Into Agnes Scott College in the 1920s and 1930s and Life Post-Graduation.”

This display will be on view at least until the end of December 2018 to celebrate the reopening of Rebekah Scott Hall and the Woltz-Garretson Room there.

Mary Lillias Garretson ’33 contributed to the renovated space in Rebekah in memory of her parents, Percy Richard and Lillias Painter Garretson, who found a way to send four daughters to college during the Depression. The family shared memorabilia, photographs, reunion write-ups and textbooks for the exhibit.